What a day. What a life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
AMANDA GORMANAs a public poet, people often don’t see the reality of my life.
More Amanda Gorman Quotes
-
-
When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.
AMANDA GORMAN -
What’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.
AMANDA GORMAN -
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice.
AMANDA GORMAN -
Poetry is interesting because not everyone is going to become a great poet, but anyone can be, and anyone can enjoy poetry, and it’s this openness, this accessibility of poetry that makes it the language of people.
AMANDA GORMAN -
That’s kind of the challenging thing about writing an inaugural poem. You’re speaking to everyone, but you don’t also want to speak for everyone.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I don’t want it to be something that becomes a cage, where to be a successful Black girl, you have to be Amanda Gorman and go to Harvard. I want someone to eventually disrupt the model I have established.
AMANDA GORMAN -
It wasn’t until I was named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. in high school though that I officially began calling myself a poet. I just always loved writing, period.
AMANDA GORMAN -
As a young black woman, I notice at times in the mainstream media framing of the ‘me too’ movement you see a white female face or a white male face, and that type of questioning and interrogation needs to happen.
AMANDA GORMAN -
Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I did a lot of sitting back and thinking about what I wanted for myself and what I wanted for my country: more unity, more support for the arts and more opportunities for young writers from marginalized groups.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.
AMANDA GORMAN -
Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for.
AMANDA GORMAN -
We know. We believe. And we act, because it is our civic duty.
AMANDA GORMAN -
It was so incredible meeting Lady Gaga. I mean I’m gaga for Gaga, literally. We kind of just each flew to each other like magnets after the ceremony ended and we were both just crying and hugging.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I close my eyes and I am with this army of young women standing in a line and I imagine us walking forward together.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I grew up at this incredibly odd intersection in Los Angeles, where it felt like the black ‘hood met black elegance met white gentrification met Latin culture met wetlands.
AMANDA GORMAN -
You don’t have to be a poet, you don’t have to be a politician or be in the White House to make an impact with your words. We all have this capacity to find solutions for the future.
AMANDA GORMAN -
Your daily challenge to not be like a boss, but the boss, in all things you.
AMANDA GORMAN -
As a public poet, people often don’t see the reality of my life.
AMANDA GORMAN -
To hone my voice, I read everything, from books to cereal boxes, three times: once for fun, the second time to learn something new about the writing craft, and the third time was to improve that piece.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I have to interweave my poetry with purpose. For me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.
AMANDA GORMAN -
The oration of poetry, I consider to be its own art form and tradition.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I was born early, along with my twin, and a lot of times, for infants, that can lead to learning delays.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I am my own best mirror.
AMANDA GORMAN -
I think we run into issues when our online brands are not rooted in who we are, and I think we need to have explicit discussions with ourselves about who we want to be, what we want to represent, and how we want to express that.
AMANDA GORMAN